There are no transgender predators in public restrooms

As you have probably heard, North Carolina passed a bill called the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act, which requires transgender individuals to use the public restrooms that match their birth certificate rather than their gender identity. It is commonly called the Bathroom Safety Law, but also includes facilities such as showers and changing rooms. At least 10 more states are considering similar legislation.

The law caused an instant uproar with boycotts coming from such celebrities as Ringo Starr, Michael Moore, Bruce Springsteen and corporations such as Pepsi, PayPal and Target—the latter of which recently designated their store washrooms as transgender friendly.

On the other side you have the usual suspects, nervous cisgenders who say that bathroom safety laws are needed to protect women from sexual predators.

"As the dad of young daughters," said presidential candidate Ted Cruz, "I dread what this will mean for our daughters—and for our sisters and our wives."

Now, I do not believe Ted Cruz is necessarily a bigot because he is worried about a grown man using the same shower as his daughter. I even kind of understand people being skittish about sharing a lavatory. Most of these potty police types have never encountered a transgender person. They've been relegated to the closet for so long now, the fact that the trans community has loudly and proudly emerged into the mainstream is freaking some people out. And it's all because of that prehistoric human defense mechanism we call Fear of the Unknown growing wild and unchecked in their little lizard brains.

Not that it matters. Whether your intentions are hateful or ignorant, the overall impact on transgender persons is the same. And when I say "transgender persons" I mean, you know, your fellow fucking human beings; people who live among you—who have hearts and minds, who are trying with all their might to participate in a society that systematically immiserates them. For that reason I do not give a grand goddamn how afraid or uncomfortable it makes you, your wife or your daughter. Because their fear and discomfort is but a freckle on the pimple on the ass of a flea on the dog of the discomfort and fear a transgender person feels every time they walk into a public restroom.

What a bunch of cissygenders! All wound up and horrified over the idea that a man in a dress is going to enter the powder room, walk up to your daughter at the vanity counter, stick out his big, veiny hand and say, "May I borrow your compact?"

Look, it is not entirely unreasonable for people to be uncomfortable about grown men showering in facilities designated for women and girls. And maybe public baths are where we draw the line. But it is utterly absurd to say that without these safety laws men will commit sexual assaults.

As if there is even a shred of evidence of this happening in the 200-some U.S. cities that currently have trans-friendly bathroom policies.

As if Dressed to Kill was a true story.

As if it isn't blaringly obvious to anyone who doesn't own a poster of Pat Robertson holding up the disembodied heart he carved out of a drag queen as sacrifice to the baby Jesus that if anyone needs protection in public facilities it is the trans community!

The transgender bathroom predator scenario is a myth. A cooked up, dreamed up, made up, straight up myth designed to arouse fear in the cissygender masses. Such as we see with the American Family Association's petition against Target, which at the time of this writing, has fear-mongered 700,000 cissies into signing it. The company did this by saying that Target's pro-transgender washroom policy encourages sexual predators because "a man can simply say he 'feels like a woman today' and enter the women's restroom."

Wow. Are these people for real? If a man is deviant enough to commit a felony sexual assault in the ladies' room, do they really believe a bathroom safety misdemeanor will be the thing to stop him?

Think of what they are saying. The AFA is claiming that a straight, cis, male sex predator won't even need to put on a dress to assault women in a Target ladies room. He will merely have to approach the door and announce, "I feel like a woman today" and that will give him license to go inside and start doing rapes on people. And we know this is going to happen because of the countless reported cases in the 200-some cities that have trans-friendly bathroom policies. And when I say "countless" cases I mean it literally—as in zero.

Can we please just turn off our lizard brains for a bit and curtail our fear of the unknown? Sure, it has served us well in the past, like when we first encountered a sabre tooth tiger. But does it do us any good now? I mean, unless an army of cyborgs descend on our planet bearing flags with an image of the Earth inside a circle with a line through it, well yeah, at that point it might be prudent to fear the unknown. I would even support an anti-cyborg restroom law. But until then, can we keep the fear in check and let these poor people piss where they want to piss? It's called dignity. How about letting them have a little?